This year, Queen Margrethe spends Christmas with her sons, daughters-in-law, and grandchildren in Marselisborg Palace in Aarhus. It is the family’s first Christmas without Prince Henrik so it made sense that the whole family would be reunited. It was even better since Prince Nikolai and Prince Felix were spending the holidays with their father as they alternate between their father and their mother. (They spent Christmas with Countess Alexandra last year and Prince Joachim, Princess Marie, Prince Henrik, and Princess Athena spent Christmas in France with Marie’s family)
As they usually do when spending Christmas at Marselisborg, the family attends two church services. On the 24th, the whole family attended the Christmas Eve service. In previous years, Queen Margrethe and Prince Henrik would arrive in one car, then Crown Prince Frederik, Crown Princess Mary, and their children would follow in another car and Prince Joachim, Princess Marie, and their children would arrive in a third car. They followed the same pattern this time but with one change: Prince Felix and little Prince Henrik went to the church in Queen Margrethe’s car so that she would not be alone on the ride from the Palace to the church.
On the 25th, Queen Margrethe, Crown Prince Frederik, Crown Princess Mary, Prince Joachim, and Princess Marie attended the Christmas Day service. Crown Prince Frederik left early as he does not take part in the Communion, just like his father didn’t.
Princess Marie wore recycled outfits to both services. She debuted the red coat to the same Christmas Eve service back in 2013 but it is still ufo. She wore the coat with her black Jimmy Choo ‘Romy’ pumps.
On the 24th, Princess Athena wore a new coat by Zara.
We won’t see the Danish royal family until January 1st when they’ll attend the traditional New Year Gala Dinner. Queen Margrethe will make her annual speech on New Year’s Eve.
On June 30th, Prince Felix officially finished his studies at Krebs’ Skole as he will start high school at the end of the summer holidays! As reported by Billed-Bladet, his family was there to celebrate with him!
Prince Felix arrived with his mother Countess Alexandra and was joined by his father Prince Joachim and Princess Marie, Prince Henrik and Princess Athena. Prince Nikolai -who had graduated from high school a few days before- only arrived after the ceremony had started with his girlfriend Benedikte so they didn’t pose for photos with the rest of the family.
Princess Marie wore a new Ganni floral asymmetric skirt ! It is the third new Ganni item Marie has debuted in the past few weeks so it is certain she went shopping there for her summer wardrobe! The skirt is available at $135 here.
During the weekend, Prince Nikolai took part in his second fashion show (the first one being the Burberry Fall/Winter 2018 show back in February). He was chosen to open and close the Dior Homme Spring/Summer 2019 show in Paris by Dior Homme’s new creative director Kim Jones.
Kim Jones explained on his Instagram that he chose Nikolai as an homage to his mother as she was Danish. Kim Jones told The Guardian: “I’m half Danish and Mr. Dior always had that thing with royalty, and so I thought it would be nice to open with a prince – quite glamorous isn’t it?””
Congratulations are also in order for Prince Nikolai! He graduated from high school this week and obviously his family took part in the celebrations!
On Monday, he traditionally received the hat that marked the end of his high school studies. His parents Prince Joachim and Countess Alexandra, as well as his brother Prince Felix, were present for the small ceremony. They followed the tradition and wrote a small note inside the hat.
Yesterday, the official graduation ceremony took place at Herlufsholm High School. Prince Joachim, Princess Marie, and Countess Alexandra were once again present. It was nice to see them being so friendly to each other and they all looked very proud of Nikolai! You can see more photos here and watch a video here.
The Court announced a few weeks ago that Prince Nikolai would start a two-year formation at Hærens Sergent School in Varde on August 1st so we might see photos of his family accompanying for his first day there.
For this ceremony, Princess Marie wore a new floral printed wrap skirt by Danish brand Ganni. It is available here. Her black tank top looks new to me but I haven’t been able to find it yet.
She also wore her favorite Zara shoes with a new yellow, blue and red clutch and her Christine Hvelplund earrings and necklace. Her sunglasses looks new to me too but I haven’t seen a good enough close up yet.
On Tuesday, while Prince Joachim was handing the Europa Nostra Prizes, Princess Marie, Henrik and Athena were with Charles-Henri Keller and Charlotte Sparre to watch the football game between France and Denmark. Charlotte Sparre is a Danish fashion designer and a big friend of Marie and Charles-Henri is the nephew of the late Prince Henrik. Charles-Henri has always been close to Joachim and Marie, even attending events with them sometimes, and he posted this very cute photo of them watching the game, each of them having the Danish and French flags painted on their cheeks!
We’ll next see Prince Joachim and Princess Marie tomorrow for their last event before their summer holidays. They will attend the premiere of The Misanthrope at Grønnegårds Teatret. The Court’s calendar is mostly empty for July as the whole royal family is on vacation. Prince Joachim, Princess Marie, and their family haven’t taken part in the annual Graasten photoshoot for a few years now so I don’t expect them to attend this year. Although since it will be the first one without Prince Henrik, maybe they will decide to come back from their holidays in time for the photoshoot to be by Queen Margrethe’s side. Otherwise, they will probably spend the whole month of July in France, either in Cayx or with Marie’s family. If they follow last year’s pattern, the Court will maybe release one or two photos of the family during their holidays.
As usual, Prince Joachim and Princess Marie will have a pretty busy month in August. The only events confirmed by the Court at this moment are the events part of the State Visit by France on August 28th-29th. Local newspapers have confirmed that Prince Joachim and Princess Marie will visit the military school Prince Nikolai will enroll in on August 15th to celebrate the school’s anniversary.
Princess Marie is also expected to attend several events for her patronages:
The Copenhagen Jewelry & Watch Show will take place from August 17th to August 19th and Marie will attend on one of the days.
The Copenhagen Cooking and Food Festival is scheduled to take place from August 24th to September 2nd and Marie, as Patron, is expected to attend one of their events
The Tonder Festival will take place from August 23rd to August 26th and Marie will certainly attend one of the concerts, most likely with Joachim, Henrik, and Athena.
Marie is also Patron of the World Food Summit – Better Food for More People and she is expected to attend several meetings and events surrounding the forum, just like last year. It will take place on August 30th-31th so just after the State Visit from France.
Prince Joachim is scheduled to attend the Copenhagen Historic Grand Prix on August 4th and 5th and we will certainly see Marie and the children there too. Joachim will also most likely attend the Copenhagen’s Goodwill Ambassadors gala dinner at the end of August. All in all, a very busy month for the couple after a full month of holidays.
First of all, new official photos! I wished the Danish Court had released photos for Prince Joachim and Princess Marie’s 10th wedding anniversary but they told me they wouldn’t. So it was a nice surprise when the Court released three new official photos of the couple for Prince Joachim’s 49th birthday on June 7th.
These photos were taken on January 1st, most likely after the New Year’s Gala Dinner. Princess Marie is wearing her Rikke Gudnitz gown and her wedding tiara and the Order of the Elephant. It appears she also wore the Star of the Légion d’Honneur.
On June 10th, Prince Joachim attended the Danish Air Show with his sons Prince Nikolai, Prince Félix and Prince Henrik. The Danish Air Show is held every year and took place this year at Flyvestation Aalborg.
Over 125,000 people were gathered for the Air Force event, where flights from home and abroad made formations and maneuvers in the air. The Princes had the opportunity to take a closer look at the F-16 aircraft.
Prince Joachim is a part of the defense as Colonel of the Reserve and Prince Nikolai start studying at the Sergent School in Varde this summer.
On June 11th, the day of Prince Henrik’s birthday ( he would have turned 84 on this day), the Court announced that Queen Margrethe had decided to award a commemorative medal to the members of the Royal Family, the court’s staff and all of those who have helped Prince Henrik during his disease and who helped the family after Prince Henrik’s death and for the organisation of the funeral. The private family members of Prince Henrik also received the medal. They also made announcements regarding the Prince Henrik’s Fund. You can read more about it in the post I wrote for Royal Central here.
On June 12th and 13th, Princess Marie was in Scotland with a delegation of the Danish Emergency Management Agency. Marie works with them since June 2017 as a Special Assistant in Project Development for Prevention. In her work for the Preparedness Board, Princess Marie participates in the design of a new field of action with specific tasks.
The aim of the Preparedness Board is to help the population be better prepared in case of an emergency. DEMA and Princess Marie met with the Scottish Fire and Rescue Team in order to learn more about their methods of preventive work and to share DEMA’s projects. A similar meeting took place last January in Denmark when Princess Marie and a DEMA’s delegation met with Dutch specialists.
There was no press access but the Court did share two photos of Princess Marie in Scotland. It seems like Princess Marie wore a new Goat coat. It is the ‘Redgrave’ coat in navy and it is also owned by the Duchess of Cambridge and Crown Princess Mary in different colors. I can’t be 100% sure but I think she’s also wearing her Christine Hvelplund earrings.
In the first photo, Princess Marie is wearing the white Tara Jarmon top she first wore for her Point de Vue interview and her Christine Hvelplund necklace.
She also wore new red satin pumps and her old UFO clutch. I believe the clutch could be the ‘Claire’ satin pumps by Michael Kors but this can’t be confirmed without more photos. You can see a close up of the pumps here.
We’ll next see Prince Joachim and Princess Marie on Tuesday when they’ll host a reception in Schackenborg Castle for their patronages and collaborators.
